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The X Files: a textual analysis in relation to Canon and Participatory Culture

In recent years, audiences have seemingly become a lot more active and involved with the media texts they consume. Whenever a new TV show becomes popular, groups of fans on social media websites such as Twitter and Tumblr engage by making animated GIFs of their favourite scenes, writing fanfiction, and drawing fanart. These activities aren’t simply hidden away on the internet either, fanart in particular has worked its way into the mainstream media as actors are often shown fanart of themselves in promotional interviews. Fans are also known to partake in critical discussions of their favourite texts, discussing concepts such as what constitutes as canon in their free time. This essay will examine the idea of participatory culture and how it affects the way in which fans interact with texts with a specific focus on The X Files (1993-2016). In addition to this, I will be investigating the canon of The X Files (1993-2016) and whether fans can claim any ownership over canon.

Participatory culture is described by Jenkins (2006) as an atmosphere in which audiences can produce their own content instead of simply being passive consumers, and they have an active engagement with the text they interact with. These “prosumers” (Miller, 2011), as they have been called, are able to utilise the internet in such a way that they can share their own creations and become part of a community of fan creators online. Although this sense of fandom and fan creations are not a new idea, Coppa (2006) pointed out that fans have been organising fan magazines and conventions since the 60s when Star Trek rose in popularity, the online age has allowed for a larger variety of people to create their own content as they are less limited by geography or financial circumstances. The current age of the internet, known as Web 2.0 (O’Reilly, 2005), also allows for audiences to interact with the creators of their favourite media texts, and this provides them with the ability to influence and control the media that they consume in a way that was not possible prior to the internet’s creation. One discussion audiences often have with one another and with showrunners is on the topic of canon, and what constitutes as canon.

If a text is considered as canon, it is to be considered as “an official text in the fictional universe.” (Brooker, 2002) Although this is seemingly straightforward, multiple science fiction franchises are surrounded by debates about what is considered to truly be canon. Usually the debates spawn from a franchise’s attempt to delve into other mediums and becoming cross-platform; this is due to the fact that new mediums require new writers, artists and other professionals and it becomes unclear who owns the story and whether or not the original creator is required in order to make a text canonical. For instance, Brooker (2002) considered whether or not the Star Wars TV specials could be considered to be canon as George Lucas was involved with multiple as were key members of the cast- but the actual storylines conflicted with the plot of the original trilogy. This debate is not unique to Star Wars; similar discussions have surrounded multiple cross platform media texts, such as The X-Files (1993-2016).

figure 1: the x files logo, found on the majority of x files related media and products

The X-Files was initially created and developed by Chris Carter as a television show for Fox, but the show’s significant popularity led to the franchise branching out into feature films, comic books, video games, and novels. The show also inspired two spin off shows, The Lone Gunmen and Millennium, which were set in the same universe and followed the same canon but had different main characters in place of Fox Mulder and Dana Scully. The X-Files has been hugely influential in pop culture despite ending in 2002 and has had a resurgence in popularity in recent years due to both a tenth revival season being aired in 2016 and online streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Video purchasing the rights to the show.

The series follows main character Fox Mulder and his co-worker Dana Scully as they try to unearth a government conspiracy in which a secret society are attempting to cover up the existence of alien life. The show has two types of episodes; mythology episodes which further the government conspiracy plotline, and Monster-Of-The-Week episodes which don’t further the overarching storyline and instead focus on a specific case that Mulder and Scully are investigating. Therefore, when discussing the canon of The X-Files it’s important to note whether an episode is a mythology episode and to question if Monster-Of-The-Week episodes can be considered to be just as canonical as their counterparts. Furthermore, guest writers and freelance writers were often brought on for both types of episodes; so it’s important to consider whether or not those episodes can be considered canon or if the only truly canonical episodes were penned by Chris Carter.

Furthermore, it’s not enough to just question whether or not an episode of the show constitutes as canon- if we are to look at canon in relation to audience participation it’s important to consider who owns canon. Is it up to Chris Carter to decide what’s official in the X Files universe? He created the show, after all, so it would be easy to assume that he has the final say in where the plot goes next. Or is it up to the fans, many of whom have spent years studying the texts in depth in order to accurately create their own fan texts? Fans usually have a sentimental connection to the characters and the story, and if they dislike a new plot thread, character, or relationship they won’t be afraid to make their voices heard. In fact, canon and fandom often display a complicated relationship with certain subsets of fans following the ‘official’ canon religiously, while others find fame in their community for writing fanfiction under the subgenre of “episode fix” in which an event is rewritten so that fans can see a “preferred conclusion” (Busse and Hellekson, 2006).

Arguably the most well-known aspect of The X Files isn’t the series’ overarching plot about government conspiracies and alien invasions, it’s the relationship between Mulder and Scully. The relationship, known as Mulder-Scully-Romance or MSR within the fandom, is the primary focus of the majority of the fanfiction found online. Archive Of Our Own (ao3), a popular fanfiction website, has 4000 stories about MSR, with the second most popular relationship having just over 500 stories dedicated to it. However, despite it’s popularity, the relationship wasn’t considered canon by Chris Carter until the eighth season of the show, and he famously wrote the third season episode Syzygy to “highlight their many incompatibilities” (Rosenfield, 2016). Chris Carter’s response to the growing popularity of an idea that he was clearly against demonstrates the power of audience participation. Despite the internet being a fairly new beast when The X Files first aired, fans were able to respond in such a way that the creators of the show heard them and had no choice but to respond through the show itself. Therefore, not only does the internet allow for discussion and conversation but it allows for audiences to send the story in a direction it would not have gone if not for their reactions.

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figure 2: a video showing Mulder and Scully arguing in the episode Syzygy

It seems strange, therefore, that Chris Carter would allow for MSR to become canon despite being against it enough in the early seasons to write an entire episode criticising the idea. It could be argued that Carter doesn’t own the canon, in this case, as he was influenced by the response from the fanbase. If Carter truly owned the canon of his show, surely he would be able to do anything he wanted to the characters without feeling a need to justify his decisions within the confines of the show. The fans put up such a strong fight, though, that it would seem as if he had no choice but to bring a romantic element into the story. Not only that, but the element that Carter was so against ended up being the most compelling part of the show according to many critics who often praise the chemistry between Gillian Anderson and David Duchovny (Bastien, 2016). The audience, therefore, should be considered the true authors of the Mulder-Scully-Romance as they were the catalyst that allowed the relationship to flourish.

On the other hand, the audience possessing the ability to communicate with Carter doesn’t mean they own any part of the show. The fans may have breathed life into the idea, but it was Carter who turned this idea into reality by writing the episodes and airing them on TV. By following this train of thought, it’s possible to suggest that while fans do not own the canon of the version of The X Files that aired on Fox, they do own their own version of the canon that developed through the extensive amounts of fan works they created. Prolific fanfiction authors online often update quite frequently, and it’s common to see authors with ongoing series’ that follow the same internal canon. Although these stories may not strictly adhere to the official canon that Carter has devised, they are unlikely to break from the rules that have been set within their own “AU, or alternate universe” (Busse and Hellekson, 2006). Therefore, canon is not set in stone and constantly needs clarification; is a piece of text part of the official canon or is it an unofficial canon specific to a certain sphere of fan creators.

It’s also important to note that canon isn’t one static entity- it changes over time as a media franchise progresses and delves into other platforms. This idea relates to The X Files as the canon has largely continued through the comic books in the years since the show has been off-air, and some of the show’s canon has been altered and fixed through the comics, before the show was picked up again for the revival series. The largest change to the franchise’s canon found within the comic books is the status of The Lone Gunmen, a trio of recurring characters who made appearances throughout the show; the characters were killed off in the ninth season of the show which was received negatively by critics and fans who called it “one of the worst episodes of the season” (Keegan, 2009). The comics retconned this by presenting the characters alive with an explanation that they had faked their deaths. Some would argue that this isn’t true canon, as it’s not content found within the original form of the franchise. However, the comics were executively produced by Chris Carter and were advertised as a continuation of where season nine left off, so it’s possible to argue that the faked deaths were a part of the official canon of the franchise.

figure 3: the lone gunmen’s coffins in the episode Jump The Shark, showing their original fates

figure 4: the lone gunmen shown to be alive and well in the comics following the events of Jump The Shark

The canon was altered further with the revival series, however, when it was revealed that The Lone Gunmen were still dead. This causes a problem as, if we are to consider all Carter produced content as official canonical text, there are now two official texts that provide conflicting storylines. There is no way for The Lone Gunmen to be both alive and dead, so fans of the comic series are aware of one version of canon, while audiences who have only viewed the TV show likely only know and accept the other series of events. As both versions were created by Chris Carter, it becomes even harder to determine which version of canon is the real one.

figure 5: a screenshot of tumblr with the search term ‘txf meta’

The existence of two versions of canon results in different audiences having different entry points to the franchise. Fans of the show who were old enough to watch it when it first aired are a lot more likely to have picked up the comics as they would have been much more readily accessible immediately after the show ended. The younger generation, however, are more likely to have started their journey into The X Files with the revival series and the original show found on Netflix and therefore may not even be aware that the comics exist. Different generations of fans may interact and participate in the fan community in differing ways as newer fans who may not be aware of the additional platforms won’t consider the comic book storylines in their own fan works and analysis of the franchise. Websites such as Tumblr, however, allow for fans from different age groups to interact with each other and discuss their viewpoints. Figure 5 is a screenshot taken from Tumblr in which the search term ‘txf meta’ has been entered. This search results in multiple essays written by fans in their own free time for no reward other than the enjoyment of interacting with the community and discussing the show in intense detail. Therefore, fan produced content overall becomes more informed and more detailed as there are easily accessible deconstructions and critiques of the original content found everywhere on social media.

When considering the ways in which audiences interact with The X Files, it’s also important to consider who these fans are. Women are known to make up a significant chunk of The X Files audience, as indicated by the fact that the show sparked a phenomenon known as “The Scully Effect” in which the character of Dana Scully inspired significantly more women to pursue STEM careers (Norman, 2016). However, women make up an overwhelming majority of prosumers online which would imply that there is something about having the ability to produce their own stories that appeals to women significantly more than men. Mulvey (1989) argued that men in media are usually active and pursue the objects of their affection while female characters are passive and simply exist to be objectified therefore showing that the media women consume is not created for them, it’s created to appeal to the male fantasy. This double standard may be irritating to women in the audience who then begin to write their own stories in order to give female characters more agency. Although Dana Scully isn’t a character renowned for being a shy wallflower, she has been sexualised since the pilot episode when she stripped down to her underwear in front of Mulder giving him a significant sense of power over her due to the fact that he was fully clothed. Women in the audience upset with the treatment of Scully on the occasions when her autonomy was taken away can find catharsis in writing their own fanfiction as well as getting involved with discussion forums.

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figure 6: a scene from the pilot episode in which Scully is in her underwear while Mulder is fully clothed, an example of Scully being sexualised

Online communities don’t just allow for female fans to criticise the over sexualisation of female characters that they relate to though, fan websites also offer a safe space for women to openly lust after and objectify their favourite characters in a way that is usually only acceptable for men in the mainstream media. Bury (2005) found that a certain group of fans of The X Files, known as the ‘David Duchovny Estrogen Brigade’ or DDEP, produced large amounts of fan content centered around Fox Mulder, the character portrayed by Duchovny. However, when questioned about their reasons, the fans rejected the idea that they fantasised about the character romantically; instead they found him physically attractive and gained pleasure from viewing the character in a sexual way. Usually women in the audience are not provided an opportunity to openly objectify male characters as it is usually female characters that are overly sexualised, so online fandom provides women a chance to flip the script. This is a potential reason for why so many online fan communities have a female majority, because they see an opportunity to speak about men, relationships, and sex more candidly than society would allow them to be offline.

Prior to analysing The X Files in this way, I considered myself to largely be a passive consumer. I binge watched the show and loved it, but I wasn’t inspired to start writing AU’s about Mulder and Scully. Once I began to research participatory culture in depth, however, I realised that despite not creating fan art or writing fan fiction, I am deeply involved with the fan community. A large number of the blogs I follow on my personal Tumblr account are The X Files centric and regularly post about their favourite episodes and a number of the posts I have saved and in depth discussions of the symbolism involved in my favourite episodes. Additionally, I’ve become more aware of the fact that my gender has an impact on how I react to the media I consume and is likely the reason I find comfort in discussions with my peers online. On a wider scale, it’s become clear to me that the way in which audiences actively respond to media, instead of passively consuming, is incredibly important to the way in which media franchises are produced. Without the conversation between the fans and the producers of The X Files, the Mulder and Scully relationship might have never seen the light of day and you could even go as far to say that it would hinder the success of the show.

My research into canon has also changed how I view the franchise. Before I began this textual analysis I considered the original run of the TV show to be the only official canon because that was the form most familiar to me as a consumer. However, as my research has required investigation into the comic book series in particular, I’ve realised that canon isn’t as simple as that and it constantly needs to be questioned in order to find a satisfying answer for what truly constitutes as canon. For instance, is it enough that Chris Carter produced a piece of text if it defies every other known piece of canon information which is important to the story? Prior to my research I would have said no but I am now of the opinion that the idea requires much more thought and debate.

To conclude, canon and participatory culture are both integral parts of any cross platform media text and many of today’s popular franchises would not be the same without interaction from their audiences. Online fan communities are a huge force in the industry and provide audiences with the ability to become active prosumers instead of passive consumers; and even when fans are not creating their own content, they are involving themselves in conversations about the text. Similarly, canon is a complex concept to consider due to the fact that any time a media franchise branches out into another platform it becomes harder to determine what information is official and accurate to the established story and what text is unofficial; but these conversations are critical when it comes to understanding a franchise. The indefinite nature of canon is one of many ideas that spawns debate and discussion in fandoms highlighting today’s culture of active audiences.

Overall, cross platform media franchises are consumed by incredibly passionate and involved fans who have an immense amount of love and enthusiasm for the media they consume. However, their love of the text doesn’t prevent them from remaining critical of the parts of the text they consider to be below average, such as when an episode goes against the established canon or a character behaves unlike themselves. These criticisms do not detract from their appreciation for the text, it instead demonstrates a sense of engagement that a passive viewer would not possess.

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